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WWE Raw

Raw Redux – December 1st, 2008

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This week on Raw: The comeback Diva, Melina scored another victory, this time over Jillian. The A-Lister had some words for Glamarella too. Thoughts & Reactions Long time no see, right? Raw just got interesting about a week ago, when Melina made her return to Monday nights. It seems that Melina is a Diva who … Read more

Melina vs Jillian Announced for Raw

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The comeback tour rolls on for the A-List Diva, Melina. Hot off the heels of her showstopping return last week, WWE.com has now announced that the former Women’s Champion will take on her ex-BFF, Jillian on Raw tonight. Squash match, anyone? Although we can all predict the outcome, it’s nice to see WWE keeping things … Read more

Another Returning Face

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(Image Credit: Milena-Roucka.com) WWE sure is shaking up the women’s division of late. Add Milena Roucka to the slate of returning Divas we’ve seen or read about in the last two weeks. Previously on “Returning Divas”, Alicia Fox, the former SmackDown wedding planner returned but this time to ECW as a glorified Nitro Girl/manager to … Read more

Don’t Call It a Comeback…

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She’s backkkkkk! And from the looks of it, she hasn’t missed a beat! Melina made her return to Monday Night Raw just moments ago in a six Diva tag team match, teaming up with Candice and Mickie James to defeat Beth Phoenix, Jillian and Katie Lea. Melina’s comeback was somewhat marred by a technical difficulty … Read more

House Show Watch: Beth Phoenix vs Candice

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In a rare treat, I managed to find this video on YouTube while searching for something else! Some fan was nice enough to record and post a match between Beth Phoenix and Candice from last night’s (Nov. 13) house show in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Kelly Kelly served as special guest referee and Mickie James as … Read more

Layla Makes Fashion Faux Pas

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Could it be a sign of the end of days?! I never ever thought I’d tune into Raw one week and dislike what Layla was wearing… until last night. Layla is easily the most fashionable Diva to ever grace the WWE and we often rave over her personal style. So what possessed her to wear … Read more

Raw Spoilers For Tonight!

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Tonight’s Raw was taped earlier in the evening in Manchester, England. Check out the spoilers below: After Santino loses his Intercontinental Championship to William Regal in less than a minute, he demands Shane McMahon make Beth Phoenix defend her title against Mickie James tonight. Beth def. Mickie after Santino distracts her.

16 Diva Tag Match Announced… WTF?!

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WWE.com has announced a 16 Diva tag team match announced for tonight’s three hour episode of Raw! A clusterfuck waiting to happen! 16 Divas… will we get a chance of seeing some past Diva legends back on Raw? Over the weekend it was confirmed that Mae Young had been contacted to appear on tonight’s show, … Read more

Raw Redux – October 27, 2008

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This week on Raw: In six Diva action, Kelly Kelly led her team of Candice and Mickie James to victory over Jillian, Katie Lea and Layla.

Thoughts & Reactions
A decent match and a fun segment were on the bill from our Monday night crew. Not what I expected or wanted to see this week, but I have to say, it wasn’t overall a bad night for the Divas. I thought WWE may finally create a storyline this week with Cyber Sunday over, perhaps Kelly vs Beth for the title – it felt like the perfect time to start a new programme but nope. However, the six Diva tag team match was a good watch and Beth’s reaction to Charlie Haas was hilarious.

Starting with Beth, Haas looked exactly like the Glamazon lol. It’s almost eerie to be honest. I was hoping for a showdown between the real and fake Beths, would’ve been far more entertaining than anything involving Santino. Well not much more to add here…

Boy, did my heart stop when I found out Layla would actually be in a match! Holy frig! I ain’t gonna lie, it’s one of the few things that have excited me about Raw’s women’s division in the past few months. Says a lot about the division, if you ask me. When Kelly, Candice and Mickie came out, I actually began thinking about how strong the faces are on Raw at the moment. You have three popular Divas who can go in the ring each and every week, that’s a great thing. Meanwhile on the heel side, we only have one strong Diva in Beth Phoenix while we cannot take the likes of Jillian and Katie Lea seriously because we know they are but jobbers. If WWE actually built up Jillian or Katie a little bit more, I think the division could be very strong. You have three believable faces but only one believable heel. Hell, I think the less experienced Layla (who I heart and adore) is a more effective and believable heel than Jillian and Katie. I can believe that Layla is a bad ass Diva who’ll eff you up, but Jillian and Katie at this point are jokes. I hope WWE builds up Layla a little stronger than they have done with those two, because we need some strong heels on Raw. The only Diva that didn’t get perpetually buried like Jillian and Katie was Melina when she was a heel. She was always the number two heel behind Beth and when you had a tag team match say Mickie & Candice vs Beth & Melina, it seemed like an even match-up. We all knew the three faces would win this match, if WWE bothered in the slighest, the fans may just have felt this was an even match-up. Like I say, Layla is a greet heel in the making and I hope she’s not buried like her partners from last night.

The match saw some great work from all three faces, it was great to see Mickie back on Raw and back in the fold. However, I wonder if that was not just a technicality. I think WWE only booked her for Raw because she won the Costume Contest at Cyber Sunday, had she not I think she’d still be in limbo. Nice work from all three of the Divas this week, they all gelled well together which makes it easier to believe they are a team. I know I say it every week, but I think last night was a significant statement that Kelly is being pushed as the new top face on Raw. Even though WWE loves Candice and the fans love Mickie, Kelly was the one again, who came in off the hot tag and finished the match up. Say what you want about Kelly, but I think she’s worked really hard and she deserves this confidence that WWE is showing in her at the moment. Plus I’d personally rather see Kelly get a push than my darling *cough* Candice and let’s face it, as much as we all love Mickie, she needs to take a back seat for a while. Kelly is a new fresh face and I think this is an example that if you apply yourself, learn your craft, you will be rewarded. But who’s to say that Kelly won’t just be the flavour of the year, which I think was the case with Candice in 2007. Her stock has dropped in favour of Kelly, this year. As for the heels, I would have loved to see more of Layla in the ring, I really want to see her in a one on one match. I was a little wary of how Layla would fare in the ring, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen her in a match. It’s hard to believe that just a few months ago she was having show stopping matches with Michelle McCool on SmackDown, that seems a lifetime ago. I hope Layla’s still got it, she’s a great wrestler for someone who’s only been around for two years. And also wouldn’t it be cool to see Layla vs Kelly here and now on Raw? I mean after their disaster of a match on ECW in January, nearly a year later, it would be so cool to see them go at it.

Some other random tidbits: How effing funny was it when WWE cut Candice’s disrobing with Mickie’s entrance? Usually that’s the money shot for WWE, they just love showing us the disrobe. A welcome change and also possibly a subtle hint of Candice’s de-push. And how funny was it when the heels came out, Jillian was front and centre? The Diva in front and centre is usually considered the top heel in the match and it was Jillian the Joke (ooh I like that, new nickname!). I’d have put Layla front and centre myself, she’s the only one that hasn’t been completely devalued and the only one we can actually take seriously as a heel because she hasn’t jobbed every single match of her WWE career.

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Raw Redux – October 20, 2008

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This week on Raw: Candice and Kelly Kelly scored an impressive tag team victory over resident jobbers, Jillian and Katie Lea. Beth Phoenix and Layla also appeared.

Thoughts & Reactions
Monday Night Raw officially seems to be in “holding pattern” territory for our Divas of late. No storyline development, no challenger determined for our Women’s Champion. One Divas match per week to fill the ‘Diva quota’ (I know, I’ve overused that phrase… sorry) and that’s your lot folks! That said, the Divas matches of late haven’t been all that bad. The past few weeks have hinged on what I like to call the ‘Rise of Kelly Kelly’ and that continued this week with K2 scoring her third consecutive victory over Jillian. One could almost dub this a feud if the fans didn’t already know that Jillian would lose each and every match. Raw’s resident jobber brought along her second in command, Katie Lea – that’s nice of her right? So she didn’t have to be humiliated on her own this week. Honestly when you saw Jillian and Katie come out, did you actually think they stood a chance of winning? Though Jillian should think herself lucky to be on TV for nearly a whole month on a show other than ‘When Plastic Surgery Goes Bad’.

Sniping aside, I thought Candice and Kelly worked really well together and the crowd was into both Divas. Honestly, it was neck and neck in terms of cheers for both Divas. Candice looked the best she’s looked since her return, she seemed shaky still at No Mercy, but at this point I think the damage is done. WWE seems to be pushing Kelly into Candice’s old role as top-ish face, I say ‘top-ish’ because hard as they try to push both Divas, Mickie James always wins out with the crowd if there were a choice among the three. I think of Candice and Kelly in a similar vain, they’ve both come in from being unrespected bimbos, let’s be frank, to learning their craft. At this stage of the game, I would judge their in-ring abilities to be equal; I don’t think one is better than the other and I felt as though the moves Kelly did in this match, Candice has or could do and vice versa. Perhaps it’s a bad thing to have two Divas so similar (aside from hair colour) but at the same time, they both seem really popular and put on a decent match against Jillian and Katie. Even if you cannot find it in yourself to compliment their ability, as more ‘conservative’ fans do, you cannot deny that they worked the crowd. Could it be because they were the first on? I’d say that factored in, but Kelly has drawn a huge crowd response over the past couple of weeks from being further down the card also.

I think Kelly came out of this match the stronger winner than Candice, she’s the instigator – the dropkick on Jillian before the match and then coming in and getting the hot tag and finishing the match. Often in the past year, we’d see Mickie do all the work for Candice to take the credit in these tag match as she was pushed for the Women’s Championship and now it seems Kelly is being primed for Candice’s spot. What does that say for Candice? I think there’s more than enough space for her on Raw (personal preferences aside) but I don’t think she’ll receive quite the push she received in 2007, now or in the distinct future looking ahead to 2009. She’s not wholly to blame for being brought back off her game, but I think her ring rust hindered her chances of being champion again and continuing her ‘feud’ with Beth; WWE seems to be writing that off. But that is just my conjecture, in reality, Kelly has only scored a few wins – it hasn’t translated into a storyline with Beth or a match for the title yet.

As for Jillian and Katie, poor Katie! I think she has a lot of potential – though she has been less than impressive in the ring – she has a great look and character that could be built on. WWE seems to have just simply confined her to Jillian #2.

I didn’t watch the Beth segment, so anyone can fill me in the comments. Thanks! For the two seconds we saw Layla, she looked gorgeous with an elongated ‘goooooorrrrrrrrr’. Even if she doesn’t do much, she does it with style.

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Raw Response – October 20, 2008

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One of the great parts of Diva Dirt is reading what you have to say as commenters! Your opinions give us a good gage of what you think, who you like etc. And your thoughts also help me write my weekly Raw Redux. So we want to give you an open forum every week to … Read more

Raw Redux – October 13, 2008

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This week on Raw: Beth Phoenix continued her starring turn on Monday Night Raw, the Women’s Champion’s powerslam on Johnny Knoxville is very much a talking point on celebrity news blogs as well as wrestling media. Meanwhile, Kelly Kelly and Jillian duked it out with tag team partners.

Thoughts & Reactions
This week’s Raw was so incredibly underwhelming that I have very little to write. Thus this will likely be a very short Redux this week. Beth Phoenix continues to get a push everywhere outside of the women’s division for which she holds a championship belt. The Diva has been involved in some high profile segments featuring top WWE stars over the past month or so, including Batista and now she’s getting blogged about by the likes of Perez Hilton (I don’t visit that piece of shit, so I’m not exactly sure if there’s a blog about it there per se but you get the gist of what I’m trying to say) by slamming Johnny Knoxville. All well and good, but this was done at the expense of one of the most anticipated feuds of the year – Beth vs Candice which has stalwarted since No Mercy last weekend. It’s nice to see a Diva get recognition elsewhere on Raw and in the WWE, but I’d much rather Beth drop the title and have Beth do all this fun stuff while having actual competition on the show as well. Anyway, that powerslam lol… I guess it’s not exactly Beth’s fault as she has to sell someone who has no idea what he’s doing, but still people are going to be posting that clip on blogs, it’ll likely air on The Soup and it’s a botched powerslam.

Speaking of competition, we got a severe lack of it this week. You know how I like to write that WWE uses Divas to fill a quota? Well what does it say when they can’t even get their usual one match spot? This week we had to put up with Cryme Tyme and Miz & Morrison being injected into our only Divas match of the night. A natural progression from last week’s Raw, but I’d much rather see a straight Divas match. I expected them to have this and then have a singles match with maybe Mickie or Candice. Nope. From what I remember seeing of Kelly and Jillian, they seemed to work well together as was the case last week. Kelly’s execution of that leg-spring off the rope was much better this go around. I noticed fans actually booing when Kelly had to be tagged out because of the mixed tag rules; the fans have really taken a shine to Kelly and that’s important.

We have Candice, who is arguably WWE’s favourite Diva and Mickie James in a useless backstage segment and Kelly Kelly in a wrestling match? That tells you something. I think WWE are seeing how Kelly fever is spreading the crowd and audience and are supplying the demand, they could have easily had Candice or Mickie in a match since Kelly was in one last week. Kelly’s developing before our very eyes, her ring-work is improving and the fans are really behind her. I like that WWE hasn’t rushed her into a programme for the Women’s Championship already like they’ve done in the past with Divas who’ve caught steam, they’re letting Kelly continue to grow and I think when she finally gets her big break, she’ll have deserved it. Kelly’s transition is very unique, it’s happening before our very eyes and Kelly’s still young, she has many years ahead of her. That’s multiple title reigns, many more fans to win over – she could really be the next Trish.

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Raw Redux – October 6, 2008

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This week on Raw: Beth Phoenix and Santino scored an upset victory over Jamie Noble and Mickie James in a mixed tag match after which things got heated between Layla‘s current and former squeezes. Plus Kelly Kelly picked up a singles victory over Jillian, in a match that was completely overshadowed by the inane ramblings of four grown men trying to act like they’re from the ghetto – while wearing body glitter.

Thoughts & Reactions
This week’s Raw was a letdown on the Diva front and by the time the second Divas bout rolled around, I found myself heading for the ‘mute’ button my remote control because I was frankly getting a headache. Awards for production, WWE will not be getting. Cutting from the actual action to four men standing around hurling abuse at each other like kids on a playground was pathetic and there was just no way the audience could get into the match going on in the ring between Kelly and Jillian. It’s hard to review a match I feel I’ve only seen half of. That said, from what we did see, I’d say Kelly looked as progressive as ever and the match was fine. It wasn’t spectacular nor was it a total wash out, the work was fine and it was nice to see Kelly pick up some steam after losing to Beth Phoenix last week. Her job to Beth had to be done last week to build momentum for Beth vs Candice at No Mercy, but I’m glad WWE is back on the Kelly bandwagon and pushing her because she’s becoming a solid worker and the more opportunities she gets to go out there and gain that experience, the better she will be. Judging No Mercy to last night’s Raw, I would say Candice and Kelly have some similarities – both are competent in the ring, but have their issues with timing and such. Kelly however, has something that Candice doesn’t: ring presence. Though awkward at times, Kelly really seems comfortable in the ring and even though her ring-work may not be on Mickie James level, that comfortability in the ring adds more credibility to Kelly’s wrestling style and I think fans, critics and WWE officials alike are seeing the improvement in Kelly’s work and seeing it as a positive sign. She’s not perfect, but she’s making good headway. Jillian will always be a jobber, but got a decent amount of offense in this match so it wasn’t totally Kelly-dominated as you might expect.

As for the mixed tag match, there’s not much to say as there wasn’t a lot of Diva action in this one. Then again, I think we’ve seen Mickie vs Beth countless times that we don’t need a repeat, we can just close our eyes and envision these two going at it. Coming off a huge week of victories last week, I expected more development for Beth this week, but it became ‘The Santino Show’. Beth is the one who notched up three victories over the course of seven days and was treated little more than background filler, you wouldn’t be able to tell she just came off a successful Women’s Championship match the night before. Speaking of which, WWE darling, Candice was noticeably absent from Raw last night. I find that a little suspect, because considering they want to promote Candice as their ‘top Diva’, you’d think she’d be guaranteed a spot on the show. Is WWE’s enamour wearing off? Are WWE putting their stock in Kelly Kelly instead? I thought Kelly’s win last night was a building block towards challenging Beth for the title. The Beth-Candice feud virtually wrote itself and could have been a focal point of Raw for at least three months but WWE killed any momentum with their ‘poison pen booking’ and totally wore off any excitement to see this feud continue. It seems No Mercy was a blow off match. Which begs the question: What next for Candice?

I guess Layla isn’t going to be a salacious, ‘sex-pot’ (God I hate that word) in the way Lita and Trish were when they turned on Matt Hardy and Chris Jericho respectively. I would’ve expected Layla to slap the taste out of Jamie Noble’s mouth or get somewhat involved in the brawl between he and Regal, but nope. On one hand, it left something to be desired but on the other, it was a nice change. It kind of suggests that regal/noble status Layla is aiming for in her union with Regal, that she won’t get her hands dirty personally – she’ll get her man to do it for her. It’s a nice twist to what we’ve seen in the past, such as the two examples above. I think Layla definitely could play that ‘spoiled girl’ really well, making Regal do her dirty work and not lifting a finger herself.

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Raw Redux – September 29, 2008

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This week on Raw: Beth Phoenix regained focus after an upset loss last week, scoring a win over Kelly Kelly and Candice Michelle with her partner Jillian. Plus in intergender action, the Burchills lost to Mickie James & Jamie Noble while Layla and King William Regal looked on.

Thoughts & Reactions
After a lackluster few weeks, things were a little better this week but not enough to make me that interested in this week’s Raw. I liked that Beth got an emphatic win this week, regaining her focus towards the Women’s Championship match at No Mercy. Her win killed two birds with one stone: A) it tied in with her ‘mini-feud’ with Kelly, who got a fluke win over her as Beth pinned Kelly and B) it sent a message to Candice ahead of their title match. I didn’t like that they had Beth and Candice start out the match straight away pretty much giving away their pay per view match, shouldn’t you try and keep them apart and have them get in a hot tag? The whole booking for this ‘feud’ has been lackluster, so why start making sense now! The work was fine for most of the match, but I really wasn’t into the first half of it, it just seemed to plod along between Candice and Beth then Candice and Jillian. Candice continues to look uncomfortable in the ring since her comeback, but she has never really had much ring presence if you ask me.

The interesting dynamic of this match was how would Kelly and Candice work together? Sufficiently, I would say. When the match was announced, I didn’t think this duo would work out, you’d need someone like Mickie to lead the tag team, both these Divas are still learning. They worked together well. One thing I observed which I certainly didn’t expect is that Kelly, who has had less opportunity in the ring than her partner, was the ‘Mickie figure’ in this match. The Diva who got the hot tag, fought off both the opponents etc. while Candice did most of the brunt work for most of the match as the ‘weaker Diva’. You would think, considering WWE considers Candice to be their top Diva, she’d be doing the superhero-like hot tag – especially considering the fact that she has a title match this Sunday. However, I think Kelly worked in the role very well and lit up a match that otherwise plodded along, when Kelly tagged in, things picked up in the way that they usually do when Mickie tags in. I would say Kelly has a certain quality about her and I really picked up on this last night, I can see this girl going really far. To me, she seems to be creeping up on Candice and outdoing her in terms of matches, fan response etc. even though Candice is the one WWE wants to push. I can definitely see Kelly continuing to grow and eventually become the top Diva to succeed Trish which is what Candice had been groomed for. Kelly got way bigger pops than Candice, I’m not usually one to go by the crowd, but it was really hard to miss on Raw last night – Candice even got some boos. Not a slight to Candice, but Kelly has more of a likability factor than the former Women’s Champ and is proving to be more well rounded. It’ll be interesting to see how Candice and Kelly’s careers intertwine and mould around each other, to say the least.

As for the intergender tag match, as always good fun. It was great to see Mickie back on Raw, though I’m happy for her to remain in the background and let other Divas get over. If and I mean only if WWE can somehow work her into this storyline with Jamie Noble and Layla, then I’m all for Mickie to come back as a full time character but after the past few months, I think Mickie has run her course and needs to make sporadic appearances and not be burned out completely. I wouldn’t mind seeing a tease of an eventual match between Noble & Mickie vs Regal & Layla. The three different couples on show during this match made me think I was watching some sort of swingers party lol! Layla and Regal looked really good in that throne =)

All in all, not a bad week for Raw. I do like that we got to see more utilisation of all the Divas, very SmackDown-esque but I don’t think Raw has fully redeemed itself in my eyes. We’ll see what happens at No Mercy and going forth.

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Candice & Beth to Actually Wrestle Tonight

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Tonight’s Raw is set to be the “go home” show for this Sunday’s No Mercy, and with the lack of storyline development in Beth Phoenix & Candice Michelle‘s feud, we’ve been pretty concerned with how they’ll build up this Sunday’s Women’s Championship match. With that in mind, the following match has been announced for Raw … Read more

Raw Redux – September 22, 2008

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This week on Raw: Kelly Kelly manages to defeat Beth Phoenix once again! Thoughts & Reactions Apologies for the late Redux this week, but it’s back to uni and things are about to get crazy again. Anyway, this week’s Raw saw Beth vs Kelly for about the fourth time in 2 months. They’ve had some … Read more

Raw Redux – September 15, 2008

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This week on Raw: Candice Michelle scored a victory over Jillian, then got a cheap shot on Beth Phoenix. Beth then got laid out by Batista. Layla provided the most entertaining promo on Raw. Oh and Kelly Kelly was seen with her ‘special’ friend (and by special we mean retarded), Mike Adamle.

Thoughts & Reactions
Karma’s a bitch! The theme of this week’s Raw Redux was set to be the same as last week’s: shitty booking. Well just moments before I began writing this column, I read that Raw did a dismal 2.6 rating last night and I’d like to be the first to offer my own “hawhaw”. It just goes to show that WWE is making it’s fans tune out with crap, non-sensical booking. A freakin’ toddler could poke holes through some of the nonsense that WWE had our Divas doing last night. First of all, if Beth Phoenix hates Candice so much – if they have such an intense feud – why would Beth simply walk out behind Candice? Why wouldn’t she try and clock Candice from behind with the title or something? And if Candice was so jonesing for a fight with Beth, why would she take a cheap shot and dropkick her as she is getting into the ring? Wasn’t the point that Candice wants to go face-to-face with Beth? Isn’t taking cheap shots heel-like? No Mercy is two weeks away and WWE hasn’t done a damn thing in selling this Women’s Championship match to me. In fact, it seemed WWE went in a completely different angle last night with Beth when they have a title match to promote!

Let’s start with Candice vs Jillian. Candice’s second match back on Raw and I know a lot of people were looking to see how she’d fare, I have to say it was a vast improvement over her return match. The work was much better and there was only one really visible botch to me. That said, I didn’t enjoy this match for a number of reasons. First of all, we all knew Jillian didn’t stand a chance against Candice but to actually have her control most of the match, it’s almost as though WWE was doing some damage control, having Jillian do most of the work so Candice didn’t mess up. What does it say for Candice if WWE is doing this? She has a huge title match in two weeks, WWE cannot hold her hand through her matches and I certainly don’t see any other Divas getting this favourable treatment. Candice got in some spots but it really was Jillian working over Candice for most of the match and we all know Jillian is the biggest jobber there is going, she barely got in a lick of offense against Mickie or Melina earlier this year. WWE definitely tried to protect Candice, contrary to what some of you reading this will try to insinuate, I am not trying to personally slight Candice. I’m just stating it the way I see it, WWE is holding Candice’s hand and one has to wonder how long they can continue to do so. This match was longer than the average Raw Divas match, which would’ve been good if it didn’t feel like the match was stuck on slow-motion. I could’ve aged a year between the time it took to go from one move to the next, Candice was slow. Whether that’s her being cautious coming off an injury, I will leave for you to speculate. Unusually for Raw, the crowd was pretty quiet for most of this match save for Jillian riling them up with her ‘singing’.

Later in the night, we had Beth getting verbally buried by both JBL and Batista, pretty much a slap in the face of the women’s division and I found it really rude and disrespectful to Beth. Sure she’s a heel, sure it’s meant to be ‘entertainment’, but if it had been one of the ‘models’ out there, I highly doubt JBL would insinuate that she was a man as he did to Beth last night with “Mr and Mr Phoenix.” That left a bad taste in my mouth, because it’s a cheap form of entertainment and really is a complete disregard for the huge push WWE has given Beth since becoming the Glamazon. Let’s just undo all that in one night…

Oh Layla, why you sparkle so? A promo from a Diva. An actual Diva promo. And Layla nailed it! Short as it was, Layla oozed confidence and personality and I loved the way she delivered her lines and I honestly think this was the best promo delivered on Raw last night. Yeah, way better than the likes of former World Champions Batista, Randy Orton and JBL. What does that say to you WWE? I really love this storyline and it was my favourite part of Raw. Plus we saw Katie Lea make her Raw return and Paul Burchill has returned from Neverland! I would love to see Layla, Regal, Katie and Paul form some sort of British faction. Layla and Katie could even team up and wrestle in the women’s division, it’d be fabulous! I do hope they name rename Layla, “Queen Layla” soon since Regal is the King of the Ring.

Kelly Kelly continues to appear in useless segments for the second week in a row because WWE can’t find anything better for her to do, but just wanna put her on TV because she’s hot. Bout sums it up. At least she didn’t wrestle because I’d have to call her moves ‘flashy’ and you know that’d expose my blind hate for her… Honestly though, poor Kelly. Bearing the brunt of WWE’s bad booking. Hopefully we’ll see her back next week. Mickie James was on the bench this week too and I think it’s much needed actually, she needs some time away.

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Raw Redux – September 8, 2008

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This week on Raw: Beth Phoenix defeated Mickie James in a Women’s Championship rematch and it was revealed that she will now face Candice Michelle for the title at No Mercy. Elsewhere, Layla continued her storyline with Jamie Noble and William Regal. Plus some random appearances from Kelly Kelly!

Thoughts & Reactions
Last night on Raw, WWE showed a) That their Creative Team, between them, haven’t got a brain to share, as they lack logic to the extent where a two year old could poke holes through their booking and b) They fully displayed their bias for Candice Michelle.

Candice comes back one week and the very next week she has a title shot? WWE’s blatant favouritism was on show as they couldn’t even book a simple scenario to suggest that Candice deserves the title shot that she will be receiving at No Mercy. How hard is it to kayfabe, have Candice come out and attack Beth after her match with Mickie James, with the announcers putting over that Candice wants revenge? How hard would it have been to have a #1 Contender’s match between Mickie and Candice with the winner facing the Women’s Champion, Beth Phoenix? Apparently, a match with Candice is a far bigger prize than the title belt, as WWE so gratiously offered the winner of Beth vs Mickie such a “reward.” There is no logic to this booking at all.

Since Candice has come back, in no way have WWE pushed a feud with Beth and it aggravates me to no end, the pathetic booking we see from WWE when it comes to the Divas. This is not a feud. This is just Candice vs Beth, they are not promoting this feud one tiny bit. If they wanted to promote a feud they’d have Candice act all riled up and out for revenge, attacking Beth and really putting this over. But last week, in an unspectacular fashion, they have Candice come out and pin Beth right off the bat. How about booking this so that when the eventual match does happen, it means something? This match means nothing at this point. Considering Candice is WWE’s golden girl, I honestly thought for the first time in a long time, WWE would actually book a half decent feud for Candice’s comeback against Beth. The booking for this match at No Mercy is so far, non-existent. There may as well be no history between Beth and Candice, because that’s the way this thing is being booked. If WWE can’t fucking be bothered to show interest in their own work, why should we care? Honestly, I don’t care. I rolled my eyes through this entire match. The booking is lame, we have no investment in seeing this match because WWE has offered us none.

The match itself, this has to be one of the worst matches Beth and Mickie have put on together. The whole thing was pretty sloppy and awkward to watch. There were some spots that were fun, but on the whole, I think these two have produced better work. This coming from me, who has never really enjoyed the singles matches between Beth and Mickie. I don’t think I have much more to say about this match, we’ve seen it far too many times this past year.

As for the staredown between Beth and Candice, is this WWE’s idea of booking a feud? Coz let me tell you, it was not effective at all. I just felt like, “Move along…” waiting for the camera to cut to backstage or something. Speculate as you will, but I certainly lol’d that Candice didn’t have a match this week on live television. I particularly loved how Candice got her own special director’s chair, yet Layla has to make do for a shitty chair next to The King.

Nice segue there, because we’re moving onto Layla now. And finally, here’s some booking that was exciting – well it wouldn’t take much to top the Divas match. Last month or so, it was teased that William Regal and Layla may be hooking up. On the August 4th edition of Raw, I think Regal was about to say to Layla: “Every King needs a Queen…” when he was interrupted by Jamie Noble. The thought of Queen Layla certainly appealed to me at the time so hopefully, after Layla walked off with Regal last night – it just might happen!

Oh also, Kelly Kelly appeared in one or two useless segments, including one with Mike Adamle as he explained to her why he replaced Punk in the Championship Scramble at Unforgiven. Why would Kelly give a flying fuck? If I was Kelly, I’d be like, “I don’t care. What I want to know is why Candice got a title shot over me when I beat Beth in a singles match and I’ve been working like a bitch for the past two months.” Because let’s face it, Kelly has worked really, really hard since joining Raw and she does have a victory over Beth. Even if she gets a title match on Raw and loses, who cares? The fact is, she deserves it. I love how they try to compensate for pushing Kelly to the back of the division by having her appear in shitty segments.

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Raw Redux – September 1, 2008

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This week on Raw: Candice Michelle made her comeback in six Diva action, scoring the win for her team of Mickie James and Kelly Kelly by pinning Beth Phoenix, whose partners included Katie Lea and Jillian.

Thoughts & Reactions
She’s back and as controversial as ever. No Diva divides fans the way that Candice does and that’s been evident from reading your comments and reviews on Candice’s comeback on Raw last night. As for this blogger, I’m sure you all know Candice wouldn’t exactly make my Christmas card list (if I knew her that is) so I may be biased when I write about her. But hey, that’s what friends blogs are for. Some clever guess work on WWE’s part for having Candice make her miraculous comeback on a taped edition of Raw rather than the live thing, because the editing is causing an uproar among you Diva fans. The match was definitely edited at the end. I guess they knew that it wouldn’t be pretty, either.

Moving away from the wrestling to begin with: I couldn’t help but feel Candice’s comeback was the most contrived piece of television since Jade Goody decided to “redeem herself” by entering the Indian Big Brother house. From the outfit to the bad acting as she went to the top turnbuckle to tears at the end, this wasn’t as much a “comeback” as it was a “blubfest”. We’re supposed to feel sorry for Candice, we’re supposed to root for Candice – but in all honesty, Candice isn’t as likable as WWE would have their fans think. This is evident by the way she divides Internet fans. I can’t help but feel Candice is a contradiction of herself, she tries to come across so profound but then shows up on Raw looking like a dominatrix – one who can’t keep her clothes on, for that matter. If her outfit “defines beauty”, I’d rather be ugly. Then we have the tears after she retreated up the ramp following the match, “Pity me! Pity me!” I hope WWE realises that Candice is not the innocent babyface like Trish or Mickie and trying to have her act like she is will never catch on with the fans, just look at the furore she causes online. PS: I thought Raw was now a PG show?

Anyhoo, onto the match – I really enjoyed the work from our Divas this week. Kelly and Mickie seemed more fired up than usual, Mickie in particular was the most exciting I’ve seen her since her fourth Women’s Championship win – perhaps she’s trying not to be overshadowed by Candice? Kelly continues to improve and she worked well for her short part of the match. Jillian and Mickie shared a great chemistry that I enjoyed thoroughly. As for Katie Lea, I think she works better in a tag team combination than in singles action and that’s odd, if you ask me. Her tag team work was much better than her series of horrible and bland matches with Mickie this past summer. As for our Glamazon, well I certainly didn’t like that they buried Beth straight away against Candice. So much for a “money feud” between these two. They ruined it in a matter of minutes by having them interact at the first instance. I would’ve had Candice pin Jillian or Katie and then have Beth retreat from the ring quickly, avoiding any confrontation between these two – prolonging that eventual match. Obviously, logic isn’t WWE’s strongest suit.

Candice’s in-ring return was a mixed bag, I’ll admit it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be, but it wasn’t great either. There were a few glimmers of excitement (such as that hair-drop thing she hit on Beth from the corner), but for every glimmer there’s a botched headscissor takedown. It seems to me that Candice has even yet to master the basic forearm, perhaps she should concentrate on getting her punches right before moving into anything too showy? As I’ve said with Kelly Kelly, it doesn’t help when you overcompensate for your lack of experience with flashy moves – try and perfect the basics. The end was definitely edited as one moment, Candice was behind Beth and then miraculously in front of her. Candice has a long way to go and I certainly wouldn’t rank her in-ring skills above the Divas Champion, Michelle McCool. That said, Candice isn’t as bad as some fans will suggest. She’s certainly a step ahead of Maria and former Diva, Ashley. To reiterate, thankfully for her and WWE this week’s show was taped but that won’t be the case next week. Hopefully, we can have a more informed judgement next Tuesday.

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Raw Spoilers – September 1, 2008

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WWE taped Raw tonight, with it set to air tomorrow night. Highlight below to view the spoilers: • Jamie Noble (w/ Layla) defeats William Regal • Candice Michelle, Mickie James & Kelly Kelly defeat Beth Phoenix, Katie Lea, & Jillian Hall

Raw Redux – August 25, 2008

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This week on Raw: Kelly Kelly upsets the Glamazon and Women’s Champion, Beth Phoenix in singles action.

Thoughts & Reactions
This is the victory that will have many fans divided. More conservative fans will argue that there is no way Kelly, the inexperienced “blonde bimbo” deserves a victory over not only Beth Phoenix, but the Women’s Champion. Meanwhile, others would argue that Kelly has vastly improved and does deserve to gain some steam and deserves one of her first victories as part of the Raw roster. What side does Raw Redux fall in? The latter. When I first read Beth and Kelly would be facing off for the third time in the past six weeks, I initially rolled my eyes. We’d seen this match twice before and I thought this would go the same way as those two matches, with Beth easily beating Kelly. Instead, we got something different and unexpected – Kelly beating the Glamazon. And you know what? I’m all for it.

This wasn’t exactly a clean victory with Beth being somewhat distracted by Santino, so it’s not like Kelly totally outpowered Beth. Kelly has worked really hard over the past six months on both Raw and SmackDown, becoming pretty competent in the ring. When Kelly first moved to Raw, I feared that she’d hardly get any TV time and like Maria and Ashley before her, barely improve in the ring hindering all the development she made on SmackDown and ECW. Instead, Kelly has been a pretty prominent part of the Raw roster, wrestling on a regular basis. However, instead of receiving a huge push like Candice or Trish Stratus, Kelly has been used as enhancement talent to help put over the likes of Mickie James and Beth. So I think it’s about time she finally got a little confidence shown in her by management, with a victory and she got that on Raw. I’m not saying Kelly is championship material, but I wouldn’t mind seeing WWE build off this win and give Kelly a title shot against Beth next week or at Unforgiven even as sort of an “interim mini-feud.” By that I mean this would be a transitional mini-feud for Beth until Candice comes back, it’s fresher than seeing yet another Beth vs Mickie rematch at Unforgiven right? And because this is just an interim match, obviously, Kelly wouldn’t win the title. It’s just something fresh to tide us over until a real feud is booked.

As for the match, I’ve said and I’ve said it again, Kelly and Beth have shown so much chemistry in the ring together in their previous matches. Chemistry that I never expected to see from these two Divas, but yet again, I felt they delivered a really solid match. This match wasn’t as “flashy” with Kelly pulling off all these big moves like in their last match, which is one of the things I liked about it. Perhaps Kelly has learnt to be more subtle utilising these big moves, using them more sparsely so they look really good. If you do the same flashy moves in every single match, I think they lose their excitement. Good work from both Divas.

I like that WWE laid off Mickie this week too, she really needs to be repackaged or something. So who was waiting with baited breath to see Gail Kim turn up on Raw? I’m glad they didn’t rush into things and have her debut last night. Actually, I don’t think she’s even signed a contract yet.

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Raw Redux – August 11, 2008

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This week on Raw: The build-up towards SummerSlam saw a fun match between Mickie James and Santino. Beth Phoenix once again destroyed Kelly Kelly too.

Thoughts & Reactions
I was really sceptical last week when WWE put the kibosh on ongoing storylines – Mickie vs Katie Lea and Paul Burchill vs Kofi Kingston – and opted to work towards a Winner Take All match at SummerSlam. But judging by this week’s follow-up, the build-up has been fun and really made me excited for this Sunday’s pay per view. It seems, WWE put more effort into the booking this week than they ever did with the Women’s Championship feud between Mickie and Katie. In one night, they manage to have a strong build-up towards a pay per view match and I don’t know about you, but I’m now looking forward to what could be a unique match at SummerSlam.

While the thought of Mickie vs Beth for the umpteenth time does nothing for me, making this a Winner Take All intergender tag match adds some new flare to an otherwise beaten horse. Not to mention, the new comedy double act of Santino and Beth should add some humour into this match at SummerSlam. Will Mickie finally give up the title? A lot of fans are speculating, even the critics, that Beth will take the Intercontinental Championship and make Santino carry the Women’s Championship – as absurd as that sounds, it also adds some importance to the Women’s Championship and the Divas. Two things I’m all for!

Back to the broadcast, Beth and Kelly had a so-so match compared to their encounter a few weeks. I had worried that Kelly would become just another Maria or Ashley on Raw but nope, she’s working on a regular basis and that’s nice to see. Despite some sloppiness in the ring, Kelly is working hard and I have to admire that. Even though she’s jobbing out in most of her matches, just being on screen and being on matches on a regular basis put Kelly a notch up from Maria or Ashley during their tenures on Raw. A few weeks ago, Kelly and Beth shared an intense chemistry in the ring – that was kinda lost this week, but the match was fine though nothing compared to their match last month. I liked the end segment with Santino wanting Beth to hit another move on Kelly.

As for Mickie vs Santino, well when Santino was cutting his promo if you didn’t clock on he was talking about a match with Mickie and not Kofi – make sure you take the slow bus when school starts up again, won’t cha? I would have liked to see Mickie be more aggressive and really wow the crowd the same way Beth did in her return match with Santino last month, there wasn’t that “Oh my god, Mickie’s totally beating up Santino” element that made you both want to cheer for her and laugh at the same time. Santino going over was the right thing to do, giving the challengers the momentum going into SummerSlam. The danger now is though, the champions will pick up the win at the pay per view. I think it’s a wise move to put the titles on Beth and Santino. All around, it was a passable Raw that did it’s job – pushing Sunday’s match.

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